Education

Iron Man Workshops

As part of Gwent Theatre’s developing provision to schools we have decided to run a series of workshops prior to rehearsing The Moon Dragon by Philip Michell. This play is based on characters from Ted Hughes’ The Iron Man and that is our starting point.

Poor literacy is a major setback for children who experience it. The causes are varied but boys, in particular, appear to be susceptible to difficulties with written material and become victims to a variety of disadvantages if the problem is not addressed. Our project hopes to offer a new approach to written material which will be enjoyable, inclusive and productive. The project hopes to develop methods to encourage young people to enjoy improved literacy through a series of specialised workshops.

In publishing the work of the project it is hoped that many more children will be given this opportunity.

The activities afford children opportunities to work with the text in producing material of their own. It has been piloted and developed in a primary school in Blaenau Gwent. A record of the content of the workshops, the material produced (in a variety of media) and the results will be collated and presented in booklet form and on this site. This material will be distributed to anyone with an interest in improving literacy with children for use in their own establishments.

The project is aimed at fostering an interest, through drama, in texts in an attempt to improve standards of literacy amongst the target group. This will clearly give the children better opportunities for success in the future in fulfilling their real potential. This will be monitored by receiving evaluations from the pupils themselves and teachers participating, on a regular basis, to identify measurable outcomes in terms of improved pupil performance

Paul Gibbins,
October 2007

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